Aggravation
Wahoo, a game similar to Parchisi, is a board game that involves moving a set number of marbles around the board, trying to get them into the safety zone. The game originated in the Kentucky and Tennessee hills. Most boards are four to six players. Wahoo has been a popular game for decades. Even today, custom-made boards proliferate on eBay and game manufacturer Milton Bradley has sold their own version of the game, under the title Aggravation, for decades. Rules Number of Players: 2 to 6 Object: To be the first player to move all of the player’s individual marbles out of the starting area, around the board, and into home, whether by going the distance or taking shortcuts. Setting Up: Each player places his marbles in the starting area and has their dice handy. Each player rolls the die. The highest number goes first, then play proceeds to the left. If two or more players roll the same number, they roll again to break the tie. Playing: To move a marble out of the Starting Area to the Starting Position, a player must roll a one or a six. The Starting Position is the space just outside the Starting Area. After a marble is placed on the Starting Position. If the player rolled a six they are allowed to roll again. There is no limit to how many extra turns are allowed in regards to this rule. As long as he rolls a six, the player is allowed an extra turn. A player may never land on or pass one of his own marbles. If the number rolled on a player's turn puts them on or ahead of their own marble they must move the one in front. If a marble lands on a space already occupied by an opponent’s marble, the opponent’s marble goes back to that players Starting Area. If a player rolls a number that does not allow a marble to be moved, that turn is completed and goes to the next player in the sequence. Shortcut: In the center of the board, there is an extra hole, this may be used as a shortcut. To enter the hole a player must roll the exact number necessary. For example, if a player moves a marble into the Starting Position, then rolls a six, that allows the marble to be moved to the center hole. The only way off the center is by rolling a one. The player would then move their marble down the side next to their home base. Another shortcut would be to move the marble clockwise around the points (called Stars) nearest the center hole. An exact number is necessary to begin this play, but not necessary to leave it. In some versions of the game only a one or six role will allow someone to come out of their starting area and when a four is rolled the player must move one of their backwards. This can be a hindrance on much of the board, however, this can also become a short cut when a piece has just come onto the board and has to back up past their home area. Winning: The game is won when the first person has all his/her marbles safely home. The game may be continued to see who gets second place, and so on. With 4 or 6 players: When four or six people are playing, there are two methods of play. One is partners. When playing partners, players opposite each other are partners. You are allowed to "take out" your partner by landing one his marble, as per regular rules (above), however, usually this is not favorable. When one partner gets all his marbles "home," he then uses his turn(s) to help his partner get his marbles home. The partners assist each other ONLY when one partner is finished. The first pair to get all their marbles "home" wins (regular rules apply. The other method is every man for himself, or "cut-throat." By playing cut-throat, there are no partners, and no special rules (see normal rules above) ''Aggravation'' Aggravation is the name of one of the many Pachisi variants. Its distinctive features are that the track is usually asterisk-shaped, to accommodate six players, that it is normally drilled to accept colored glass marbles as playing pieces, and that it incorporates "shortcuts." There are no "safe" holes where a player's marbles cannot be captured (or "aggravated," in the game's parlance). Each player rolls a single die to determine the number of spaces to move, with a roll of either 1 or 6 needed to enter the track. Each of the inside corners near the center of the board is a "shortcut," as is a hole in the center of the board: if a player lands a marble on one of the corner shortcuts, they have the option, on the next roll, of jumping from shortcut to shortcut, counting each jump as a single space. If a player on a corner shortcut rolls a 1, they have the additional option of jumping to the center shortcut; from there, the marble can move directly to any corner shortcut on a roll of 1, but cannot move at all on any other roll. External links *Wahoo Software version *[http://boardgamecentral.com/games/aggravation.html Aggravation